


You came to me (bearing cookies)

by Travelintimeandspace



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, lieutenant duckling AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 08:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9482522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Travelintimeandspace/pseuds/Travelintimeandspace
Summary: It's true what they say, that traumatic events change you. However, what happens next said traumatic event might change your life too, especially if it's a boy knocking at your hospital room's door to bring you cookies.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea for this oneshot a few days ago and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Huge thanks to all the CS Writers' Hub ladies for, as always, being so supportive and for correcting all the mistakes I made <33

“Let's go somewhere to celebrate!”

That's what Mary Margaret said after signing the papers for Emma’s adoption, right after her sixteenth birthday, and that's how Emma found herself in a cabin surrounded by snow.

For the first couple of days everything was perfect; she was enjoying the peace and tranquility of that cabin in the mountains. And the snow! She loved it. That soft white blanket that covered the ground, making everything feel magical; and she could build a snowman or start a snowball war against David.

But then the snow storm came, and it didn't look fun at all anymore. In just one night they found themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by several feet of snow. And it didn't look like it'd stop snowing anytime soon. It took a full day for the storm to die down a bit, making it possible for Mary Margaret to walk to the closest village and ask for help, leaving David and Emma alone inside the cabin.

Emma was in her room when it happened.

There was a loud roar, shortly followed by the ground starting to move under her feet, the window panes trembling so hard that she thought they would break in a million of pieces. She didn’t even have the time to ask her father what was happening when something crashed violently against the walls of the cabin, the force of the impact knocking her down.

And then everything went black.

*    *    *

Someone was shouting her name. Why couldn’t they stop? Her head was pounding and her eyelids felt so heavy. She wanted to shout back and tell them to shut up, but first she had to open her eyes. The first thing she saw when she finally managed to open them was white, a soft, icy wall of snow that had come through the window and blocked what was supposed to be the door.

Propping herself up on one arm, she slowly sat up. Closing her eyes to make her head stop spinning, she carefully touched the pulsating spot on her forehead which had hit the floor. As someone called her again, she winced and put her hand down to inspect her fingers.

Blood. That explained the dizziness and why her skin felt so slimy under her fingers.  

“Emma!” David shouted again frantically.

“I’m here,” she said loud enough for him to hear her.

“Emma thank God! Are you alright?”

“Yeah. I just fell and hit my head. Are you alright? What happened?” Emma asked, looking around at what remained of her room. The bed was intact, as was the wardrobe. Nothing remained of the small desk in front of the window. The night lamp and the couple of pictures that were hung on the wall were now in pieces, scattered on the floor.

“An avalanche. We are trapped here,” David’s desperate voice came from the thick wall of snow, “But they’re going to find us, okay? Mary Margaret went looking for help and she’ll call someone. Everything is going to be fine.”

“Yeah…” Emma whispered, her voice breaking as the weight of the situation fell on her shoulders. She could die there. She and David could both die there and they would never get the chance to be the family they dreamed about.

“Emma listen to me,” her father’s voice echoed again in the room, “Try to find every blanket, everything from your clothes to keep you warm. You must stay warm. If you start feeling cold find something else to put on and don’t fall asleep, stay awake as long as you can, okay baby? Don’t worry about me. I’ve managed to build up a fire and there’s all the wood I need here. Now, be good and do as I said.”

Brushing away a lone tear from her cheek, Emma found some more clothes to protect her from the cold and sat on top of her bed, putting a couple of blankets around her body.

“We’ll get out of this, dad.”

*    *    *

She couldn’t tell how many hours had passed since they got trapped under feet and feet of snow. It seemed like the laws of time worked differently down there. Maybe it was because of the absence of natural light, maybe it was for the eerie stillness and silence that surrounded them. They exchanged a few words now and then, but there really was nothing to say, nothing to make the situation they were in any lighter, nothing that could bring them some comfort, the bright light of hope that filled their hearts weakening by the minute.

They couldn’t believe it when they finally heard the first faint sounds coming from somewhere out there, all hope by then lost. Hearing the Mountain SAR team digging into the snow, working to find them, but still too far away to hear David’s shouts was a slow, endless torture.

It seemed like ages had passed by the time the voices from outside became clear enough to be heard.  

“We are here!” David called out, rushing to the other side of the room to try to get to Emma by scraping away the snow with his bare hands in a futile attempt to dig a hole.

“David! It’s okay now, we are here to save you,” a man in a bright yellow snowsuit said as he got out from a hole made in the snow in correspondence to where the cabin main door was supposed to be, followed by a few more people.

“My daughter is in there,” Emma heard David say, his frantic voice making her eyes water.

“We’ll get her,” another man promised, “but we must get you out of here first.”

“No! I’m not going to leave her.”

“She won’t be alone we-”

“Dad?” Emma spoke up, her voice caught with emotion. “Go with them. Don’t worry, they will take good care of me.”

A few seconds passed before she heard her father voice again, muttering an “I love you baby, see you later” before the noise of the Mountain SARs taking a hold of the tools they needed to rescue her filled the room.

*    *    *

Of course, the process to get her out of that room took longer than expected.

As soon as they had started to dig into that thick snow wall, the roof had started to creak perilously and so they had to stop. The first man who got into the cabin tried to comfort her and explain what they were going to do, but she was far too dizzy from the bruise on the side of her forehead, and far too cold to understand what was really happening. It felt like she was in a dream, a horrible dream, trapped inside a body too numb to be willing to move and too tired to even try.

It took several more hours for them to get through all that snow. When they found her she was sitting on the bed, wrapped in several blankets, eyes wide open looking into the void, dried blood and blue-ish lips standing out on her pale skin.

“Emma?” one of the man said, putting a gloved hand on her arm. “We are here, it’s almost over. Do you think you can stand?”

Emma nodded and so she slowly got up on wobbly legs, letting the man hold her waist to support most of her weight as they fixed a harness around her body.  

*    *    *

“Here you are,” a tall, blue eyed man said, putting his arm behind her knees and swiftly picking her up as if he were cradling a child, as soon as she got freed of the harness after crawling out the narrow snow tunnel. “You have been so brave Emma, so brave. How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”

“‘M dizzy,” she replied softly shaking her head in a no, and then tucked her head closer to the man’s chest. “Cold too.”

“I know Emma, we’ll get you all warmed up soon.”

“Where are my parents?”

“They are waiting for you at the hospital,” he reassured her.

“What’s your name?” Emma asked as the people around them got ready for the arrival of the helicopter that would transport her to the hospital.

“Liam Jones.”

“Can I get some cookies when I get there, Liam?” she muttered, her voice so small and broken that it didn’t even sound like hers.

“I don’t see why not,”  he replied, breathing out a chuckle.

As the noise of the helicopter’s blades got closer and closer, Emma could only smile back at Liam before passing out from exhaustion.  

*    *    *

For the second time that day, the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was white. However, this time around it was the bright white of the hospital’s lights that blinded her, not the terrifying icy white of snow. As her eyes acclimatised to the light, Emma focused her attention on the sounds around her. Apart from the muffled voices coming from the adjacent room and the regular beeping sound of the machines, her room was pretty quiet.

That is until someone timidly knocked at the door frame, as if they weren’t sure if they were allowed to enter or not, despite the door being wide open. Expecting it to be a nurse or a doctor, Emma was shocked to find a boy about her age with wild dark hair and piercing blue eyes standing on the threshold, when she lowered her gaze.

“Hi,” she said, her voice raspy after being asleep.

“Hi! I uhm…”  he started, scratching the back of his neck, and then, when he found the courage, he continued, holding up a transparent bag full of cookies for her to see. “I heard you wanted cookies so I brought you some. I hope you like chocolate chip.”

“You brought me cookies?” Emma repeated in disbelief, her mouth hanging slightly open because of the shock.

“Yeah,” Killian said, finally walking in, only to stop by her bed and put the bag of cookies down on the night table, his cheeks tinting slightly pink. “My brother, Liam, told me what you said to him before passing out and then on the telly they said to which hospital you were taken, so I made some cookies to bring to you.”

“You _made_ those cookies?”

“Yeah,” he replied, as the blush creeping up his cheeks grew redder. “I hope they are edible.”

“Let’s find out, shall we?”

Smiling brightly, Emma took the bag from the table and put it on her lap. However, trying to open the package one-handed without tangling the wires of the IV was not an easy task, and she quickly grew frustrated, the part of her forehead not hidden by gauze wrinkling into a frown. Sensing her struggle, Killian reached to help her and soon the package was open, but as their fingers brushed a jolt of electricity ran down their spines, making him take a step back. Blushing a little, Emma took a cookie for herself and offered one to him, which he gladly accepted.

“This is so good,” she moaned, as soon as she took a bite into it. “You’re a really good cook.”

“Thank y-”

“No,” she interrupted him, reaching for his hand. “Thank you.”

They chatted for a while, eating one more cookie each, before Emma started feeling sleepy again.

“I’ve just realised I don’t know your name,” she said as he was about to leave.

“I’m Killian.”

“I’m so glad I met you, Killian,” she whispered, suppressing a yawn.

“Me too,” he smiled, squeezing her hand lightly with his as her eyelids started to close. “Sweet dreams, love.”

*    *    *

He came back the following day, this time bringing her some hot chocolate, with cinnamon as she confessed she liked the previous day. And so he did every single day of her hospitalisation, bringing her something different each day.

He was sweet, but also a bit of a “dashing rapscallion” as he described himself. He was funny, always ready to make her laugh and lift her spirits or holding her when the memories of that interminable twelve hours under the snow would come back to the surface. Sometimes he would tell her stories, other times he just stayed there listening to her. Killian Jones was the best medicine, the best therapy session Dr. Hopper, the psychologist who was taking care of her and her father, could give. She dreaded the day she had to go home and leave him.  

When that day arrived, she tried very hard to hold back the tears. They had exchanged numbers and she knew they would try their best to stay in contact, but it didn’t feel right leaving him there in Denver as she went back home to Storybrooke. She wanted to be selfish and bring him with her, but his life was there, his brother had a job there, saving lives day after day. She couldn’t be selfish, she needed to be strong and let him go for now, resign herself to go back to a life in which he wouldn’t knock at her door every day holding a bag of whatever delicacy he had baked for her. But she didn’t need to be strong as he held her in his arms, and so she let a couple of tears fall on her cheeks while he kissed the top of her head muttering a goodbye.  

In the following months all they could do was send texts back and forth or spend hours on long phone calls. However her fear of things being different between them proved to be unfounded. Or so she thought, until some time later, as in these cases often happened, they lost all contact with each other.

*    **Two years later** *

It was the first day of the semester at NYU and she was already late. In her defence, she got lost a couple of times on her way to class; it wasn’t her fault if the campus was a freaking labyrinth. She was so worried about being late and not looking at where she was going, that after taking a turn, her body collided against something. Well, not something but someone with a solid chest and strong arms which kept her from falling.

“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she apologised, her eyes fixated on the floor in embarrassment.

“Emma?”

When she heard her name, Emma tilted her chin up to look at the stranger she had stumbled upon, only for her be met by a pair of familiar cerulean eyes.

“Killian? What are you doing here?” she asked in disbelief.

“Well, I study here of course,” he replied with a grin, and added, “I missed you.”

“Me too,” she confessed, her green eyes meeting his, but then, as her gaze fell on the clock hung on the wall behind him, she cursed, “Shit. Sorry, I’ve got to go. See you around, Killian.”

Freeing herself from his comforting hold, she ran away, only to stop a few seconds later when she heard Killian’s voice again.

“Emma wait!” he said, sprinting after her. “Will you go on a date with me?”

Emma nodded, smiling. “Does Friday night work for you?”

“Sure! I’ll pick you up.”

“Good. See you on Friday then,” she said before running away again.

“Wait!” Killian called after her. “Where will I pick you up?”

Laughing, Emma turned around before disappearing behind a corner and said, loud enough for him to hear, “Find me.”

A few days later, when he showed up at her dorm with a bag of handmade chocolate chip cookies, she grabbed him by the lapels of his leather jacket and kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you want you can find me on tumblr @killiancygnus :)


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